Letters

Progress takes toll on residents

I read, with interest, the Jan. 24 article in The Argonaut about all of the wonderful development projects in Marina del Rey. What was never mentioned are the people getting evicted from their apartments in the name of progress.
I have lived in Marina Harbor for six and a half years. Last May I received a lease renewal for 10 months. When I questioned management I was told the apartment needed to be upgraded.
My choices were that I could move out, relocate to another unit or move back into my unit after the upgrades, but that rent would be increased $500 per month. I have attempted to get assistance from several people with no luck. I am 62 years old and probably the youngest of the tenants losing their home.
It’s an outrage that we have made this town our home and it’s being pulled out from under us. Is there anyone who cares about the human side to this or is it all about the almighty dollar? All I get is what they are “legally allowed” to do – how about morally?
Barbara Steinberg
Marina del Rey

It’s not about kids’ games

Re: “Fake firearms are a focus of gun debate for activists” (Argonaut, Jan. 17).
In response to the mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Santa Monica activists want to outlaw toy guns from city limits.
Let’s see if I have this on target – following extensive gun play, little boys and girls who play “Cops and Robbers” or “Might Morphin’ Power Rangers” may one day morph into career “Bonnie and Clyde” criminals who shoot up their communities? In order for them to respect life and remain untainted from the gun culture which claims so many lives, they should be deprived from playing with toy guns?
Now, Rep. Henry Waxman’s plea to reinstate Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban was ill-conceived, but banning toy guns from Santa Monica makes Waxman, Feinstein, and even Rep. Maxine Waters sound like straight-shooting centrists.
Going after the guns will not prevent violence nor instill a strong character in kids, who develop into stable and respectable young men and women. Their maturity has nothing to do with toy guns, but with who’s at home. Michelle Phillips, the founding member of a popular 1960s music group, should have reminded everyone: It’s about the “The Mamas and Papas” who raise the kids, not the games they play.
If encouraging good parenting and family values is too demanding, then I have a better suggestion: how about outlawing fun and games altogether? Why don’t we set up guard towers around every playground in the Santa Monica Bay? Anyone who plays “Freeze Tag” will hear the bark of a police officer (armed with a real gun) saying “freeze!” followed by jail time.
Activists have told Baby Jesus to take a hike (I was surprised that they did not reinstate crucifixion as a means of parking enforcement). Plastic bags are no longer welcome in Santa Monica, either. Perhaps another freedom-thinking fairness advocate will prevent people from breathing the air, since all of that respiration is a modern form of slavery for “oxygen-Americans” who are tired of their oppression.
After Santa Monica, only West Hollywood takes the top prize for such illiberal liberal fascism. You can make love in plain sight with anyone you want, but God forbid you should wear any fur, or pack any (plastic) heat.
Santa Monica activism has reached a new low for nanny-state interventionism.
Arthur Christopher Schaper
Torrance